The head of the U.S. Air Force Space Command reprimanded Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Tuesday at the 30th Annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs for what he characterized as an ungrateful act.

California-based SpaceX sued the Air Force last month, claiming that the military branch is illegally blocking competition by giving a monopoly to Centennial-based United Launch Alliance (ULA) for its launch provider contracts.

“Generally, the person you are doing business with you don’t sue,” said General William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command.

Shelton defended the Air Force’s decision to enter into a block-buy contract with ULA in December for the purchase of 36 rocket cores over five years — a deal worth $9.5 billion. A year prior, the Air Force said it would competitively bid out 14 additional launch contracts for missions between 2017 and 2019. But in March, it was announced that number would likely be cut to seven.

“Theres’s a tremendous amount of analysis that needs to be complete and it’s in cooperation with SpaceX,” he said. “That’s the long journey on SpaceX.”

He pointed out that the Air Force has allocated $60 million and 100 people to work on certifying SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.

“It’s very difficult to pick up the pace on that. It just takes time, it takes money, it takes people,” Shelton said, emphasizing the importance of reliability when it comes to launching the U.S. government’s expensive, national security satellites.

The word “reliability” was repeated throughout day 1 of this year’s Space Symposium — the nation’s largest gathering of civil, commercial and military space stakeholders — and the rivalry between ULA and SpaceX took center stage during the main afternoon panel on Tuesday.

ULA’s CEO Michael Gass answered a question about the increasing consolidation of large aerospace companies by highlighting the success of ULA, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

“We took two teams and two factories to one team and one factory,” Gass said. “We need to get that economic power that comes from doing the right type of investments…we need to figure out how to use our resources most effectively and typically consolidation is about conserving critical economic resources.”

As soon as he finished speaker, Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer at SpaceX interjected, “Let’s just be clear about consolidating to the point of monopoly has never served the consumer, ever. I don’t know of a monopoly that has delivered better prices, higher quality or had happier customers.”

The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) science began ten years ago at the University of Colorado at Boulder under the mission’s principal investigator, Bruce Jakosky. The spacecraft was designed and built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Jefferson County and the mission launches aboard one of Centennial-based United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rockets.

Monday, the MAVEN spacecraft and the Atlas V launch vehicle that it is currently sitting atop, passed its electrical test. This ensures the two components are integrated properly and can operate in unison. Scheduled to launch Monday at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, MAVEN will be powered on Thursday and won’t be turned off again until the mission is complete.

The mission will study the upper atmosphere of Mars in order to understand how and why the atmosphere was stripped away. Scientists pose these questions in hopes of learning how the planet changed from one capable of sustaining life to its present, dry state.

Longmont-based DigitalGlobe announced Friday the launch of a foundation that will provide educational grants — including access to imagery, information, expertise and tools — to US Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF)-accredited schools.

The DigitalGlobe Foundation is a nonprofit organization designed to foster the next generation of geospatial technology professionals who are in need of resources for their research and skill development. This fits with the company’s field of work, which combines commercial high-resolution earth imagery and observation to develop geospatial solutions.

“The Foundation was established on the belief that we have a unique opportunity to help educate students about the important uses of commercial satellite imagery, and geospatial analytics,” said Mark Brender, executive director of the DigitalGlobe Foundation, in a news release. “From space-based Earth observations comes knowledge and awareness, and from knowledge and awareness comes action to help solve the challenging problems facing humankind.”

The grants will be made to individuals at military and civilian academic institutions. Three Colorado institutions have eligible programs listed as grant recipients: University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Denver and Metro State University of Denver.

In addition, the Foundation is expanding its partnership with USGIF and will provide satellite imagery for curriculum development at USGIF-accredited schools.

“USGIF and the DigitalGlobe Foundation will make for a powerful team in support of the next generation of geospatial intelligence professionals,” said Keith J. Masback, USGIF chief executive, in a news release. “The students in our accredited programs will significantly benefit from the unique access they’ll have to satellite imagery, as well as from the additional curriculum development assistance their schools will receive.”

Mexico’s government has awarded Jefferson County-based Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services (LMCLS) the launching contract for its Morelos-3 mission, the third of three communications satellites in its MEXSAT system.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off. (courtesy of ULA)

The communications satellite is scheduled to launch as early as 2015 aboard the Atlas V rocket, which is operated by Centennial-based United Launch Alliance (ULA).

LMCLS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Lockheed Martin Corporation that’s primary purpose is to shop around the Atlas V’s rocket services to commercial customers.

“I’m very optimistic about the future of the Atlas re-emerging in the commercial market,” said Robert Cleave, president of Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services. “I don’t like to say we left the commercial market, I would say we took a pause.”

According to Cleave, LMCLS competes for about 20-25 of these contracts worldwide each year.

While the Atlas V rocket is operated by ULA — a Lockheed Martin-Boeing joint venture that formed in 2006 — the company specifically sells to the U.S. government. ULA will serve as a large subcontractor to LMCLS on this contract.

“ULA provides the engineering and the rocket itself,” Cleave said. “Once you have that, the next step is the value-added, tailoring and hand-holding.”Read more…

Thursday’s test flight began aboard a carrier aircraft until it reached an altitude of 46,000 feet. At this time the SS2 pilots fired the ignition, gaining altitude up to 69,000 feet, reaching Mach 1.4 in 20 seconds — breaking the sound barrier.

The test flight went as planned. SNC’s rocket engine also powered SS2 on its inaugural flight in April.

“Today’s test has once again proven the safety and reliability of our hybrid rocket engine technology,” said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of SNC’s Space Systems, in a news release.

The technology used to power SS2 will also be used on Sierra Nevada’s high-profile Dream Chaser program, which is a horizontal launch vehicle designed for manned, low-earth orbit.

“We have now supported two successful crewed flight tests for Virgin Galactic and look forward to continuing to improve this technology, not only for SS2 but also for our own Dream Chaser spacecraf,” Sirangelo said. “SNC is proud to be the leader in the design and development of these safe, non-toxic hybrid propulsion systems that will transport people to suborbital and orbital destinations.”

NASA is celebrating Spitzer Space Telescope’s 10th anniversary — along with the misson’s prime contractors, Lockheed Martin and Ball Aerospace & Technologies — a benchmark that most never expected to reach.

Spitzer was the fourth and final space satellite in the Great Observatories program. Each satellite was designed to examine a different region of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Lauched in 2003 to study distant planet-forming disks and to help characterize the Milky Way galaxy and Earth’s Solar System, Spitzer was a cryogenically-cooled infrared observatory originally forecasted to last between 2 1/2 years and 5 years.

In 2009, the telescope ran out of its onboard liquid helium that was used to cool Spitzer, rendering many of its functions useless. But the spacecraft was recalibrated to warming temperatures, extending the mission using only its two shortest wavelength detectors.

NASA’s other Great Observatories are the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Lockheed Martin’s Jefferson County facility provides mission support for Spitzer’s operations along with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology. Boulder-based Ball built the “eyes” of Spitzer — also called the Cryogenic Telescope Assembly — and two of the three onboard science instruments.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will take over Spitzer’s infrared observational capabilities when it launches around 2018, but there is not a direct successor mission planned for Spitzer.

Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems completed the tow test, in preparation for several NASA-mandated milestones, on its Dream Chaser space vehicle at Dryden Flight Research Center in California.

The Dream Chaser Space System is one of three NASA-funded programs remaining in the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Program, which is designed to help U.S. companies develop spacecraft and rocket combinations capable of launching from U.S. soil.

The ground tow tests were done as preparation for the flight vehicle’s upcoming approach and landing test that is slated to occur sometime in the third quarter. The Dream Chaser completed four sets of a test sequence — 10 mph, 20 mph, 40 mph and 60 mph — to verify that the vehicle would work properly upon landing.

While the vehicle was being towed on the runway, officials were monitoring the flight computer and flight software, instrumentation, guidance, navigation, and control, braking and steering performance, flight control surface actuation, mission control and remote commanding capability and landing gear dynamics.Read more…

Lockheed Martin delivered NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft to the Kennedy Space Center on Aug. 2, 2013. The Mars orbiter was shipped aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane from Buckley Air Force Base near Denver to the Kennedy Space Center where it will undergo final processing in preparation for a mid-November launch.

Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Jefferson County successfully delivered The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Friday where it will undergo 3-1/2 months of prep work before it is launched toward the red planet in November.

Colorado has taken the lead on the project, which is NASA’s first mission to Mars since the Mars Curiosity Rover made its nail-biting landing on its surface nearly a year ago.

The 1,784-pound spacecraft was shipped from Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora in an environmentally-controlled container on a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane.

“It was great to see MAVEN leave Colorado and arrive at Florida,” said MAVEN Principal Investigator Bruce Jakosky from the University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, in a news release. “As thrilling as it was to fly with MAVEN on the C-17, I’m more looking forward to the day when it arrives at its final destination and we can begin our science observations.”

The project’s estimated cost is $453 million with about $300 million expected to flow directly into the state. MAVEN will be launched on a Colorado rocket – Centennial-based United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V 401.

The GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST) completed pathfinding activities at Lockheed Martin’s state-of-the-art GPS III Processing Facility outside of Denver prior to it shipping to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to test facilities and pre-launch processes there in advance of the arrival of the first GPS III flight satellite in mid-2014. (handout)

The guinea pig satellite for the next generation GPS III system — built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Jefferson County — arrived at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Friday to begin all the dry run tests before the actual first satellite is launched.

A prototype satellite, called the GPS III Non-Flight Satellite Testbed (GNST) will be subjected to all the same stressors and pre-launch processes as the first flight GPS III satellite will endure when it arrives at the Cape in 2014 other than the physical rocket launch itself.

The GNST completed a number of high-fidelity and environmental test procedures at Lockheed’s Waterton Canyon facility prior to shipping from Buckley Air Force Base.

While a “test run” satellite may seem financially wasteful, the Air Force decided that the GNST would help “identify and resolve development issues prior to integration and test of the first flight space vehicle.”

The GNST is being called a ‘pathfinder’ — putting in place the processes for all subsequent GPS III satellites from the initial development phase through production, integration and test, and pre-launch activities.

“All future GPS III satellites will follow this same path, so the GNST was a smart initiative to help us discover and resolve any issues in advance, implement production efficiencies, and ultimately save a tremendous amount of time and money in the long run,” said Keoki Jackson, vice president for Lockheed Martin’s Navigation Systems mission area, in a news release.

GPS III satellites is predicted to deliver three times better accuracy and have a new civil signal that will be able to communicate with international global navigation systems – a process known as interoperability.

The first flight satellite is expected to launch in 2015. Lockheed Martin is currently on contract for the first four GPS III satellites.

David joined The Denver Post in 1999, his second go-round in the Mile High City. Since then he’s covered a variety of topics – from human services to consumer affairs – most always with an investigative bent. Currently he does investigations and banking.